Trauma-Informed Instruction for Afghan Newcomers

We’re committed to creating welcoming spaces where refugee and immigrant “newcomer” Americans can thrive — and we're inviting you to join us on a special project to support mental well-being and prosocial integration for recent Afghan arrivers.

Here’s the deal: We’re under consideration for high-impact grants that will help fund this effort and get programming into schools and organizations where it’s needed most. (And, perhaps not surprisingly, many newcomers live and attend school in historically underfunded communities, making these types of services harder to obtain.)

Your support raises our visibility and increases our chances for grant matching. In short, our newcomer youth are counting on you.

The problem: 

These shortcomings are often attributed to:

1. Lack of high-quality teacher professional development and training materials 
2. Programming that overlooks student identity
3. Practices that ignore cultural dynamics or are inconsistent with culturally responsive pedagogy.

The solution:

We’re affecting change through impactful teacher development and strategic curriculum design.

Our programming: 

• is research-based 
• centers + affirms student identity 
• is culturally responsive 
• is new-to-english accessible 
• is student-driven

And, it’s backed by our award-winning research and field expertise in refugee & immigrant newcomer integration, cultural competency, and multilingual education.

In fact, our strategies are already at work in hundreds of schools, serving multilingual learners from more than 70 countries.  

This campaign will put culturally responsive trauma-informed models into practice in five high-impact schools or organizations serving Afghan newcomers in the 2022-23 school year.

This first round of sponsored services will take place in three Colorado communities with high levels of resettlement or projected resettlement.  

DiversifiED’s positive outcomes are strengthened by our commitment to collaboration. We draw from the vast funds of knowledge that already exist in communities most directly impacted by our work. 

Your support helps us gain traction and allows for additional grant funding. This is especially critical when we consider that supports in areas with high newcomer multilingual populations are routinely underfunded.

We want YOU to be engaged in this process and are excited to offer some fun rewards for taking part in our campaign page below!  

• 25 contributors will receive a signed copy of Louise El Yaafouri's Restoring Students' Innate Power: Trauma-Informed Strategies for Multilingual Newcomers (ASCD, forthcoming early 2022). 
• 4 contributors will receive a no-cost 90-minute virtual workshop for up to 100 people to "gift" the organization of their choice (in any of our service/training areas). 
• All campaign participants will help us vote the top 10 districts or organizations down to the participating five!

About Us:

DiversifiED grows organizational capacity to serve culturally & linguistically diverse & trauma-impacted communities.  We are experts in meeting the socio-academic needs of refugee and immigrant youth. DiversifiED is highly specialized to help organizations achieve culturally responsive, trauma-informed, linguistically affirmative learning and workspaces.  

• DEI & Antiracism: DiversifiED is a nationally and internationally recognized leader in cultural competency and Diversity/Equity/Inclusion programming.  We’ve supported schools, businesses, government agencies, and non-profits in moving toward sustainable anti-bias, anti-racist, & culturally responsive impact. We offer exceptional knowledge in refugee and immigrant integration and inclusion. 
• Mitigating Culturally Sensitive Trauma: DiversifiED’s Louise El Yaafouri is a field expert in culturally sensitive transition shock (including trauma).  She has worked with hundreds of organizations to guide program design and facilitate professional development on the topic.  Her written work on the topic is widely available. 
• Emergent Multilingual Instruction & Compliance: We work closely with schools, districts, and community stakeholders to grow the socio-academic success of Emergent Multilingual students. We’ve trained thousands of educators in the U.S. and abroad to effectively implement research-based, cross-curricular tools and resources that affirm students’ multicultural identities.  We are pleased to offer exceptional knowledge in refugee and immigrant resettlement, integration, EL parent engagement, and instructional compliance.

DiversifiED Consulting is a woman-owned small business that partners with national and international organizations and contractors on an as-needed basis. Priority considerations for partnerships and sub-contracts are given to minority-women operated endeavors. Louise El Yaafouri لويز اليعفوري, DiversifiED’s lead consultant, has worked in a professional capacity with newcomer refugees for over fifteen years, offers specific training on meeting the needs of new Afghan community members.

Meet our non-profit fiscal sponsor:

Imagination Celebration is a not-for-profit organization with a mission to connect people of all ages to the brain-stimulating, life-enriching power of creativity.  The organization vigorously pursues:

• Inspiring artistic and intellectual curiosity in children, teens and adults
• Engaging our community in collaborative experiences
• Showcasing the creative achievements of those courageously exploring ideas
• Invigorating life-long learning
• Igniting creativity.

And, of course…CELEBRATING!  Imagination Celebration has been making an impact in the Colorado community for more than twenty years. It is an inclusive space for all.

Imagination Celebration is deeply committed to welcoming and integrating new Afghan neighbors. The organization is working on projects specifically related to the issue. 

Khaled Salar has agreed to act as an Advisor to this project on behalf of Imagination Celebration (IC). Mr. Salar was airlifted off the airbase in the last hours by Canada and now lived on Prince Edward Island. He ran the Herat, Afghanistan Portal  and was a medical doctor teaching at the private university that hosted the Portal.  Mr. Salar’s full resume is available at https://drive.google.com/file/d/1z1XLLyjPG99m9Azt13FeBG5XIDtziy-H/view?usp=sharing.

Imagination Celebration’s Mission and Vision can be viewed at https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sTsHgkt1QKlKr0Wz5EGD1eZTcgl3eYw4/view?…